Basketball often comes down to which team imposes its will, and Hoover’s high-pressure, high-scoring style often does just that.

Those long-armed Lake Blue Streaks had other ideas Tuesday night.

Lake controlled the boards, scored a ton of buckets in the paint and basically shut off the lane on the defensive end in holding off visiting Hoover for a 57-46 Federal League win.

Lake’s length was too much for the Vikings (3-1, 1-1), whose only true post presence, 6-foot-5 senior Harrison Blackledge, spent much of the night in foul trouble. He fouled out with 4:25 left on a play 80 feet from the basket.

The Blue Streaks (4-0, 2-0) rarely took a shot outside of the paint and played the game at their pace.

“We just had to be under control,” said Lake’s Chaese Vaudrin, a 6-2 senior guard. “At times things got a little out of hand, but I felt overall we controlled our tempo pretty well. Then, we executed when we needed to at the end.”

The Blue Streaks committed 21 turnovers, but they also hurt Hoover by throwing over the top or breaking pressure for baskets. Lake shot 21-of-39 from the floor and took 14 more free throws than Hoover.

“I bet when we got it over halfcourt we scored 70 percent of the time,” Lake head coach Tom McBride said.

Vaudrin was in the middle of everything, finishing with 12 points, a game-high eight assists and five rebounds.

“He’s definitely the leader of these guys,” McBride said. “... He’s been that alpha male with this group since he was a little kid.”

Mitchell Spotleson, a 6-4 junior, was on the finishing end of most of Vaudrin’s passes, scoring a game-high 17 points to go with 10 rebounds. Lake outrebounded Hoover 37-24.

“We really put an emphasis on keeping it tight in the paint, except on Dom (Iero),” Vaudrin said. “Chase (Champagne) did a really good job frustrating him and making him work.

“The rest of us were working on gap help and staying within, making them shoot (over) contested hands.”

The Vikings shot 28.3 percent from the floor and 4-of-26 (15.4 percent) from 3.

Iero, who hit nine 3s and scored 33 points Saturday against Wadsworth in Lake’s gym during Hoops 4 Healing, was held to one 3 — a bank job from the right wing in the fourth quarter — and 11 points.

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Blackledge had three fouls two minutes into the game and never was much of a factor. He scored 10 points, while junior guard Nick Evans provided 11 points off the bench.

“We didn’t really do anything well tonight,” Hoover head coach Randy Montgomery said. “They outhustled us. We didn’t have good rotations. When we did, we bumped people. Without (Blackledge) in there at the start it hurt us. But, hey, you’ve got to play through that and learn.”